Things to do in London this weekend (31 January - 1 February)

Find out what the UK's most promising fine art graduates have been up to in this annual showcase of up-and-coming talent from across the UK, which is now in its 76th year. Featuring 22 exhibitors selected by renowned artists Pio Abad, Louise Giovanelli and Grace Ndiritu, the London leg of the exhibition this year takes place at Camberwell’s South London Gallery.

Ciao ragazzi! Celebrate the end of your January health kick in style at the London branch of Eataly for a two-day celebration of the bougie Italian food hall chain’s nineteenth birthday. Expect tasting stations, regional Italian dishes, wines, cocktails and live food demos, all designed for grazing rather than sitting still. Tickets get you a festival glass, a pouch and a pocketful of tokens to spend as you please. It’s relaxed, family-friendly and built for wandering. Come hungry, and leave planning your next trip to Italy.

High Noon is an adaptation of the classic allegorical 1952 movie starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. It’s an impressive show in a lot of ways. Thea Sharrock’s direction deftly conjures a dusty desert town using flexible sets, lovely period costumes and some sparse but effective gun slingin’. It’s theatrical, too, in the sense that the cast sing a lot more Bruce Springsteen songs than they did in the film, and an ever-present clock implacably ticks down to the title time. And it’s got two sensational leads.

Park Chan-wook’s new film No Other Choice is a remake of The Ax (2005) by Costa-Gavras. With humour blacker than black bean noodles, the film is a masterful work of cinema which might well be Chan-wook’s masterpiece. Man-soo (a brilliant Lee Byung-hun) has the perfect life. He is respected by his company, his loving wife (Son Ye-jin), with a son from a former marriage who he considers his own, supports and loves him. So naturally, everything goes wrong. The obvious point of comparison for this comedy of murderous errors is Bong Joon Ho’s 2019 Oscar winner Parasite. Both deal with late capitalism’s smashing of a family with violent intent; both mix violence and we’re-all-screwed-anyway humour. But Park Chan-wook’s film feels like a successor rather than a competitor. 

You have to hand it to Hanbaagaasuuteeki for its supremely confident choice of location. This Asian-inspired burger joint has opened up in Victoria. A drop-in spot with high stools, counter-top tables and bright red splashes of colour, it feels a lot like In-N-Out with a K-pop twist. As well as a few cursory sides, the menu features nine burgers, including a ‘1950s-style’ double cheeseburger with a gentle Japanese lilt (its onions are rehydrated in dashi vinegar). But, it’s the freakier fringes of the menu where the magic happens. Take the shrimp kong baga – a beef patty topped with crispy, deep-fried shrimps, tangy 1000 island-style dressing and melted cheese. There are many, many burger bars in London, and Hanbaagaasuuteeki isn’t like the others.

Brazillian multi-disciplinary artist Laura Lima brings her first London solo exhibition to the ICA. Known for her genre-defying practice that merges sculpture, performance, and living bodies, The Drawing Drawing will display a new interactive sculptural installation that riffs on the traditional life drawing class, with an anarchic take that blurs the line between audience and artwork. 

Frost Fairs have a storied history in London. Between 1605 and 1814 the surface of the River Thames froze over 24 times, so locals took to the ice creating ‘Frost Fairs’ with markets, amusements, food, drink, games and general revelry. Global warming might have scuppered the frozen river bit, but Bankside is recreating the roistering atmosphere with this weekend shindig. Look out for Victorian games, outdoor performances, artisan markets, and family-friendly craft workshops, including a ‘create your own elephant mask’, and winter crown crafting sessions. After 7pm, pubs along Bankside will host after-hours live folk music sessions. 

Writer-director Jamie Armitage is back with an ambitious oddity of a production: A Ghost in Your Ear, an MR James-ish horror story with a mischievous metatheatrical gleam in its eye. Created with sound designer siblings Ben and Max Ringham, it makes use of sophisticated binaural design – meaning the audience wears headphones, with some of what is being heard pre-recorded. Part of the treat here is seeing something so technically accomplished in Hampstead’s tiny Downstairs studio theatre. Horror theatre is a small, weird and often terrible genre and this is a proper scary little gem. 

The Barbican is celebrating 20 years of comissioning artists for The Curve in 2026. Chicago-based artist Julia Phillips will be the first to exhibit in the free space this year, with her first UK solo exhibition Inside, Before They Speak. Showing new sculptures that combine glazed ceramics sculpted on her body with metal hardware, Phillips explores ideas about the body, conception, technology and human connection. 

Finally, someone has returned to The Damned United’s cunning formula for a good football movie: don’t show any football. Happily for co-directors Lisa Barros D’sa and Glenn Leyburn’s (Good Vibrations) sports flick, a psychological drama full of quirky touches and dry wit, not much of the Republic of Ireland’s pre-2002 World Cup prep on the Pacific island of Saipan made it as far as the pitch. As still-traumatised Irish fans will tell you, the reward for seeing their team qualify for the tournament in Japan and South Korea was to witness their star player and manager fall out in spectacular fashion. D’sa and Leyburn aren’t going for strict reconstruction so much as an exploration of the tensions within the Irish psyche.

Dante or Die’s resurrected 2013 show feels like a sweet throwback to the glory days of the site-specific theatre era. Site-specific work is no longer massively modish, but Dante or Die have kept the flame going for 20 years now. Much of their work is fringier and more radically intimate than I Do. But it’s the company’s greatest hit, originally staged under the auspices of the Almeida. It’s a series of sweetly earnest interconnecting playlets about the build-up to a wedding that is staged in a hotel, in this case, the Malmaisson. It’s a little gem of a show. 

If you thought you’d have to wait until 2027 for another global women’s football tournament, think again. In January and February, London will host the final rounds of the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup. The new competition brings together the champions from six different continental tournaments, with UEFA Champions League winners Arsenal repping Europe. The semi finals between the Gunners and ASFAR (from Morocco), and Gotham FC (the US) and the Corinthians (Brazil) will take place at Brentford FC’s Gtech Community Stadium while the third place play-off and grand final will be held at Emirates Stadium. 

In 1824, the young King Liholiho and Queen Kamāmalu travelled across oceans from their kingdom, Hawaiʻi, to seek an alliance with the British Crown. This winter British Museum will shine a light on the lesser-known story about the historical relationship between Hawaiʻi’ and the United Kingdom, showing artefacts and treasures created by Hawaiian makers of the past and present. You’ll be able to see everything from feathered cloaks worn by chiefs, to finely carved deities, powerful shark-toothed weapons, and bold contemporary works by Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) artists.

Condo is the best thing to hit London’s art scene every January: a citywide mega-exhibition where galleries from around the world take over spaces across the capital. The idea’s simple — London galleries invite international ones to share their walls for a month, but the results are anything but. In 2026, 50 galleries show across 23 venues, from Sadie Coles HQ hosting Paris’s Sans Titre to The Sunday Painter welcoming Mumbai’s Jhaveri Contemporary. It’s a brilliant way to sample global contemporary art in one hit, and to enjoy watching London’s art crowd parade their questionable winter fashion between stops.

The original Plaza Khao Gaeng surprised everyone with its monumental greatness. A restaurant slipped into a food hall mezzanine isn’t supposed to be one of the best in London, and yet the bijoux, southern Thai-inspired canteen blew minds and mouths with its relentless approach to flavour and fun when it opened in 2022. Run by a Brit, Plaza held up its hands when it came to its inauthenticity, but made up for it with the dedication that chef-founder Luke Farrell poured into the place. Now, Plaza has a space to call its very own in Borough Yards. Menu favourites from the first location remain: creamy massaman curry with huge hunks of tender beef shoulder and the khua kling muu, punchy dry-fried pork with chillies, but there are also plenty of dishes unique to Plaza 2:0: a sexy strawberry dish that’s actually the hardest fruit salad in south London and the gaeng som pla, a sour orange curry with fillets of flaky bass. Go for big Thai flavours, super spice levels and lots of fishy dishes. 

If you’ve ever seen a Cirque du Soleil show at the Royal Albert Hall, you’ll know exactly what to expect from 'Ovo'. Updated for 2026, its essentially a clown comedy, enlivened by a series of jaw-dropping acrobatic interludes. They have some of the best performers in the game so you might find yourself "oohing" and "aahing" at every opportunity. 

Actor-playwright Luke Norris has been more focussed on the ‘actor’ bit of his CV over the last decade, but he returns in style with the opening main house show of the Royal Court’s much-hyped seventieth birthday season. Possibly intentionally titled after the famously soppy children’s book of the same name (possibly not), Guess How Much I Love You? follows a pregnant couple facing up to hard choices at they head in for their 20 month scan. Rosie Sheehy and Robert Aramayo star in the Jeremy Herrin-directed production. 

The Southbank Centre is shining a light on some great artworks this winter – literally. In its annual Winter Lights exhibition, the institution will be bringing a selection of pieces to the streets surrounding the venue. Everything on display uses light and colour to dive into topics like identity, environment and tech, making it both an attention-grabbing and thought-provoking exhibit.

Rising star Jordan Fein’s sumptuous revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods is the first actual proper major Sondheim revival to be staged in this country since the great man’s passing. It’s a clever send up of fairytales that pushes familiar stories into absurd, existential, eventually very moving territory, but it’s also a fiddly musical with a lot of moving parts. You need to get it right, and Fein smashes it, largely thanks to exceptional casting. The whole thing looks astonishing: Tom Scutt’s astonishingly lush, vivid woods are glistening, eerie and primal. The costumes are similarly ravishing. It’s just great, really, a sublime production of a sublime musical with a sublime cast.

Amazing news for lovers of neat symmetry, loud primary colours and twee outfits. West London’s Design Museum will be staging a blockbuster show delving into the iconic aesthetic of another of Hollywood’s most distinctive auteurs, the Texas-born Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning director Wes Anderson. The film director’s first official retrospective promises to be a different beast. A collaboration between the Design Museum and Cinémathèque Française, it has been curated in partnership with Wes Anderson himself and his production company American Empirical Pictures and follows his work from his early experiments in the 1990s right up to his recent Oscar-winning flicks, featuring original props, costumes and behind-the-scenes insights.

If you boil a sauna down to its nuts and bolts, it’s essentially just a really hot room and some water to create steam with. Wild, then, how much of a positive affect those two simple ingredients can have on our bodies, healing weary muscles, doing wonders for our skin, and helping all the horrible toxins we insist on putting in our insides get back out. There are a wealth of top saunas around the city. From plunge pools and infrared therapy rooms to Finnish-style homages and ones soundtracked by DJ sets, you’ll find the steam sesh for you in the capital.

Alan Ayckbourn’s 1985 play Woman in Mind, has been a West End hit a couple of times before, in productions directed by Ayckbourn himself. Here, Michael Longhurst does the honour, in an alluring revival. Sheridan Smith plays Susan, an embittered middle-aged mother who begins the play having taken a bump to the head that’s caused her perception of reality to become unmoored. She believes she’s a model parent with a dream life, before long Susan’s ‘real’ family intrudes, headed by her windbag vicar husband Gerald (Tim McMullen), who she drawlingly tears strips off while yearning for his imaginary counterpart. It’s an extremely handsome production with something melancholic and Chekhovian at its core. 

Look, we love London. But even so, we can't deny that this city is devilishly good at coming up with ways to drain your bank balance. As Time Out editors, we’ve become experts at hunting down ways to enjoy the city on a shoestring. Lots of us started out as broke students here, and since then, we’ve scoured every corner for cheap things to do before payday hits. Read on for some fab, free ways to make yourself (and your bank balance) very happy indeed. 

Expectations have been high for Ivo van Hove’s revival of Arthur Miller’s 1947 breakthrough All My Sons, because Van Hove made his own UK breakthrough with his extraordinary 2014 production of Miller’s A View from the Bridge. And by Hove, he’s done it again. To some extent the secret of his triumph here is ‘cast really really good actors’, foremost Bryan Cranston and Paapa Essiudu, who offer two of the best stage performances of 2025. But what van Hove has done is discretely uncouple Miller’s play from the naturalism that often stifles it. The whole thing plays out symphonically, building to an astonishing crescendo. Right near the end, Joe finally says the play’s name, its meaning clear at last. When I’ve seen the play before, there’s been no special reaction. Here, the audience gasped.

At first sight, Candice Lin’s g/hosti, a new commission from the Whitechapel Gallery, evokes a childlike playfulness. At its centre is a maze of cardboard panels which are painted with animals like dogs, cats, and mice, cavorting in a mythical forest. Its simplistic style and bright, warm colours feel akin to the sort of whimsical mural you might find painted on the wall of a primary school. The more you weave through the circular labyrinth, however, the more you realise you’re immersed in something altogether more sinister and political than first meets the eye. g/hosti is a show that could be misconceived if you do not linger long enough to absorb its hidden details. The more it unfolds, the more it unsettles and makes you think. 

The London International Mime Festival was a true city staple, bringing weird and wild physical theatre from across the globe to the capital each year. Rarely ‘mime’ in the stereotypical sense, the fest brought mind-expanding theatre to London for 47 years straight. The 2023 edition was its last, but MimeLondon is the same idea in all but name, and returns for its third year in January 2026. This year events will take place at Sadler's Wells and The Place and you can check out their website for the full schedule.

In a city where eating out seems to be getting pricier by the minute, this list remains one of Time Out London's handiest guides. We've given the list a seasonal spin and here you'll find some of the cosiest (and best value) meals for embracing winter in London, such as Durak Tantuni's comforting Turkish meat wrap, a champion curry at Indian YMCA, and a visit to the Oyster Shack in Epping Forest - perfect to cap off a woodland walk in the wilds of the suburbs. 

Short films are where many of the greats – Martin Scorsese, Lynne Ramsay, Paul Thomas Anderson et al – got started, and for over two decades, the London Short Film Festival has been a trusty showcase of new talents and small, but perfectly formed short films. Returning for its 22nd year, the 2026 edition features a whopping 204 new shorts across more than 60 programmes, as well as a bunch of talks, workshops and walking tours. Loads of great cinemas and arts spaces across the city are hosting screenings, including the BFI Southbank, the ICA, Rich Mix, the Rio and SET Peckham. Highlights of the programme include the opening night which features new work from Andrea Luka Zimmerman and John Smith who delve into their own lives as artists across the decades, from Smith’s emergence in the early 70s artschool scene to Zimmerman’s own forays into 90s music and fashion; Trans Sister Seventies! featuring newly unearthed archival shorts charting the trans-feminine experience of the 1970s; My Eye Is My Ear – a selection of new UK short films exploring Deaf lives, culture and identity; Everybody’s Darling: Melodrama in 80s & 90s Punk Cinema – a series of short films platforming women and queer artistes and the legacy of Warhol’s ‘superstars’, John Waters’ trash cinema and the Cinema of Transgression and a night of films exploring emo subculture in the early 2000s. 

Happy Dry Jan! In the past those two words have signified a dull month of self-discipline, with mango and passionfruit J2O being the most exciting non-alcoholic beverage on offer. But over the last few years that’s all changed. The ‘no and low’ drinks market is now huge and London now has a vast spread of sober events happening throughout January. Among them is the brand new G0.0D Week festival. The nine-day fest will involve zero-alcohol masterclasses and tastings, restaurant hopping tours, live music and a one-night-only street food bonanza at Market Place St Paul’s.